A Texas man estranged from his family showed up at his wife’s Harris County home on Thursday and fatally shot her, their 4-year-old daughter, and his mother-in-law before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.
Officers responded to an apartment complex in Harris County around 8 a.m. after someone called to report sounds of gunshots. Upon arrival, responding officers discovered four dead bodies with bullet wounds inside the apartment, Harris County Police Chief Ed Gonzalez told reporters at a press conference.
The victims, who are yet to be identified by police and were originally from Pakistan, were the 43-year-old male shooter, his 36-year-old wife, their 4-year-old daughter and his 64-year-old mother-in-law, according to cops.
Investigators said the woman was getting ready for work at a local Islamic school when her estranged husband confronted the family and shot them with an automatic pistol, which was recovered at the scene.
Over the past several months, investigators said the couple had been going through divorce proceedings. A neighbor told detectives that the man had not been seen regularly in the area for about five months.
The woman had accused her husband of physically abusing their daughter and there were also reports of him slashing her car tires, which police said they would be investigating further.
“There’s definitely a domestic violence nexus to this,” the chief said.
Residents at the apartments quickly created a memorial on site for the family, ABC 13 reported.
“The mother-in-law was always speaking to people passing by, waving,” neighbor Angelique Lee said. “When I did see the wife, she would speak. The little girl played with the lady in building number four’s little girl. They were out there playing. The quality of life, seeming to me, that they wanted to live.”
